After playing one of the most iconic movie mums, Natasha Richardson died in a freak accident.

Natasha Richardson is probably best-known for playing the absent-minded, yet well meaning, Elizabeth James.

The actress starred alongside Dennis Quaid in the 1998 version of The Parent Trap.

The remake of the 1961 classic would become one of the most-watched family films of all time.

Richardson, who was married to fellow actor Liam Neeson, would go on to star in a bunch of Hollywood movies.

Then, a little over a decade after the film’s release, tragedy struck.

The mum-of-two was taking a private ski lesson in Montreal, Canada, when she fell on a beginner’s slope and hit her head. She felt fine after the incident and only complained of a slight headache.

The 45-year-old was later rushed to a New York hospital. Neeson had to make the difficult decision to turn off her life support.

“She was on life support,” he told 60 Minutes. “I went in to her and I told her I loved her, said ‘Sweetie, you’re not coming back from this, you’ve banged your head’.”

Her official cause of death was a epidural haematoma.

Ten years later, Quaid has reflected on his friendship with his The Parent Trap co-star.

“Now you hit my heart. She was such a beautiful person, such a beautiful, beautiful person. Just none of that, that actor stuff, prima donna stuff,” Quaid recently told US Weekly.

“Someone easy to work with and such a great sense of humour.”

“When that accident happened, it just devastated me and so many other people,” Quaid said. “She had such a beautiful love, married life with Liam, and two beautiful boys. She always had a smile on her face when she came to work. That really affected everyone around her.”

Last year, Neeson, now 66, opened up about how his role in Love Actually almost mirrored what was about to happen in his own life.

“It’s 14 years ago now and we’ve all lived lives. Some of us have died. Oh, my dear old friend Alan Rickman, God rest him,” Neeson told EW. “Some have gotten divorced. I’ve lost my wife.”

“Plenty of times I’ve thought about this film and my own life. Love Actually, that’s the way it is. That’s the tapestry of life.”

Five years after her death, Neeson said it felt like it was “never real”.

“There’s periods now when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years… anytime I hear that door opening, I still think I’m going to hear her,” he told Loaded magazine.

Neeson raised their two boys – Michael, 23, and Daniel, 22, – on his own.

In 2016, the Taken actor hinted that he had found love again with someone “incredibly famous”.